EDF Energy last week became the final one of the Big Six suppliers to reveal inflation-busting increases.
Yet Your Money can reveal a bid to ease the pain of rocketing bills will ignore millions of families who need help the most.
Experts fear this year’s double dose has plunged another 840,000 households into poverty, leaving 6.9 million with a daily struggle to afford heating. Until now, suppliers tried to lessen the blow by offering cheap-rate deals – known as social tariffs – to those facing hardship.
In 2009/10, firms provided an average discount of £84 each to 1.6 million customers. But many people don’t know they exist and suppliers have different rules on who qualifies.
To tackle this, the Government has launched the Warm Home Discount, setting legal targets for suppliers to help the most needy.
Under the scheme, costing £1.1billion over four years, those deemed the most vulnerable will automatically get electricity rebates of £120 in the first year, eventually rising to £140.
You don’t have to apply, instead letters will be sent to those who qualify, with the money credited to accounts by next March. There are different arrangements for pre-payment meter customers.
The vast majority of people getting help – more than 600,000 households – are pensioners, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.
Yet only households who get the guarantee element of pension credit will receive the money this winter.
Pensioners who only get the savings element, because they’ve put money aside, won’t get the rebate until later years, depending on age.
PAYMENTS
The boost is in addition to winter fuel payments for pensioners.
This will see households with someone under 79 get £200 this year, down from a temporary jump of £250 last year.
For those over 80, the amount is down from £400 to £300.
It’s also in addition to cold weather payments that older people (along with disabled households and families with children under the age of five on income-related benefits) get in extreme conditions during the worst months of the year.
But, while the scheme is a positive step, critics are worried about the many others facing a bleak winter.
Industry regulator Ofgem is talking to suppliers about how to provide emergency help but the DECC admits as few as 26,000 households in what it calls a “broader group” will get the £120 rebate this year.
This will rise to 650,000 by 2014/15 but they will have to apply rather than get the rebate automatically.
Yet it’s a fraction of those struggling to make ends meet, with campaigners fearing this year’s price hikes will leave as many as 12 million people in “fuel poverty” – defined as spending at least 10% of their income on energy.
The automatic rebates for pensioners came after the Department for Work and Pensions shared information with suppliers about who is in need.
DEAL
“We want to see more measures to protect the poorest from energy price rises so that families aren’t sitting in the cold this winter.”
Suppliers’ trade body the Energy Retail Association says social tariffs will be offered for the next four years, so those who don’t get rebates at first still benefit from cheaper deals. Policy adviser Alun Rees said: “The rebates are just one way of helping those in fuel poverty. Another is energy efficiency and suppliers will have invested £5.5billion in providing things such as insulation by the end of 2012.”
EDF Energy will raise gas prices by 15.4% and electricity by 4.5% in November, following recent hike announcements by British Gas, npower, E.ON, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy.
Since November, suppliers have increased average prices by £224, or 21%, leaving the typical family facing an annual bill of nearly £1,300.
Tom Lyon, energy expert at comparison website uSwitch.com, said: “You cannot have two consecutive rounds of energy price hikes in less than a year without seeing casualties.
“The visible victims are the 6.9 million, or over a quarter of all households, now living in fuel poverty, but they are more than matched by those who struggle to pay their bills and are starting to self-ration their usage.
“We are in danger of seeing energy becoming an unaffordable luxury instead of a household basic.
“My concern is the impact will really become apparent this coming winter.
full article
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Sunday 11 September 2011
Jelly batteries: Safer, cheaper, smaller, more powerful
A new polymer jelly could be the next big step forward for lithium batteries.
The jelly replaces the volatile and hazardous liquid electrolyte currently used in most lithium batteries.
Researchers from the University of Leeds hope their development leads to smaller, cheaper and safer gadgets.
Once on the market, the lithium jelly batteries could allow lighter laptop computers, and more efficient electric cars.
In 2006, Dell recalled four million laptop batteries because of concerns that they might catch fire. Dell replaced them with batteries that used lower-performance electrodes, but these batteries were significantly larger.
Battery size still dictates the size and weight of most laptops, say the developers of the new battery.
Electronics manufacturer Apple got around the safety problem for their lightweight laptops with a solid polymer electrolyte, but in doing so, the power output of the computers suffered.
Overheating is also an issue for electric cars. Developers have had to use reinforced, steel-clad battery housings, multiple fuses and circuits to protect the battery during charging. All of these contribute to the cost and weight, and hence efficiency, of electric cars.
Thermal runaway
The newly developed jelly batteries should prevent "thermal runaway", during which batteries can reach hundreds of degrees and catch fire.
The Leeds-based researchers are promising that their jelly batteries are as safe as polymer batteries, perform like liquid-filled batteries, but are 10 to 20% the price of either.
The secret to their success lies in blending a rubber-like polymer with a conductive, liquid electrolyte into a thin, flexible film of gel that sits between the battery electrodes.
"The polymer gel looks like a solid film, but it actually contains about 70% liquid electrolyte," explained the study's lead author, Professor Ian Ward from the University of Leeds.
"The remarkable thing is that we can make the separation between the solid and liquid phase at the point that it hits the electrodes.
"Safety is of paramount importance in lithium batteries. Conventional lithium batteries use electrolytes based on organic liquids; this is what you see burning in pictures of lithium batteries that catch fire. Replacing liquid electrolytes by a polymer or gel electrolyte should improve safety and lead to an all-solid-state cell," said Professor Peter Bruce from the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the study.
Professor Ian Ward spoke to Quentin Cooper about his battery breakthrough on BBC Radio 4's Material World.
full article
The jelly replaces the volatile and hazardous liquid electrolyte currently used in most lithium batteries.
Researchers from the University of Leeds hope their development leads to smaller, cheaper and safer gadgets.
Once on the market, the lithium jelly batteries could allow lighter laptop computers, and more efficient electric cars.
In 2006, Dell recalled four million laptop batteries because of concerns that they might catch fire. Dell replaced them with batteries that used lower-performance electrodes, but these batteries were significantly larger.
Battery size still dictates the size and weight of most laptops, say the developers of the new battery.
Electronics manufacturer Apple got around the safety problem for their lightweight laptops with a solid polymer electrolyte, but in doing so, the power output of the computers suffered.
Overheating is also an issue for electric cars. Developers have had to use reinforced, steel-clad battery housings, multiple fuses and circuits to protect the battery during charging. All of these contribute to the cost and weight, and hence efficiency, of electric cars.
Thermal runaway
The newly developed jelly batteries should prevent "thermal runaway", during which batteries can reach hundreds of degrees and catch fire.
The Leeds-based researchers are promising that their jelly batteries are as safe as polymer batteries, perform like liquid-filled batteries, but are 10 to 20% the price of either.
The secret to their success lies in blending a rubber-like polymer with a conductive, liquid electrolyte into a thin, flexible film of gel that sits between the battery electrodes.
"The polymer gel looks like a solid film, but it actually contains about 70% liquid electrolyte," explained the study's lead author, Professor Ian Ward from the University of Leeds.
"The remarkable thing is that we can make the separation between the solid and liquid phase at the point that it hits the electrodes.
"Safety is of paramount importance in lithium batteries. Conventional lithium batteries use electrolytes based on organic liquids; this is what you see burning in pictures of lithium batteries that catch fire. Replacing liquid electrolytes by a polymer or gel electrolyte should improve safety and lead to an all-solid-state cell," said Professor Peter Bruce from the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the study.
Professor Ian Ward spoke to Quentin Cooper about his battery breakthrough on BBC Radio 4's Material World.
full article
Sunday 7 August 2011
Dryer sales tumble
Families are switching off their tumble dryers and pegging out their washing to save money.
As a result, sales of dryers have slumped more than 30 per cent.
The tough economic conditions and rocketing energy prices have persuaded many people that there is no shame in hanging out their smalls to dry in public.
It seems people nationwide agree and it has had a dramatic impact on the sales of dryers, which are down from 1.3 million in 2006 to 900,000 last year.
Less than half of the country’s 27 million households now own a tumble dryer.
Supermarkets have expanded ranges of lines and pegs, fuelling a boom for manufacturers of traditional clothes lines, rotary lines and indoor airers
The Energy Savings Trust says using a tumble dryer for every wash costs more than £70 a year.
But pegging out the washing comes with its own cost. More than 400 people a year are admitted to hospital with clothes-peg related injuries
full article
As a result, sales of dryers have slumped more than 30 per cent.
The tough economic conditions and rocketing energy prices have persuaded many people that there is no shame in hanging out their smalls to dry in public.
It seems people nationwide agree and it has had a dramatic impact on the sales of dryers, which are down from 1.3 million in 2006 to 900,000 last year.
Less than half of the country’s 27 million households now own a tumble dryer.
Supermarkets have expanded ranges of lines and pegs, fuelling a boom for manufacturers of traditional clothes lines, rotary lines and indoor airers
The Energy Savings Trust says using a tumble dryer for every wash costs more than £70 a year.
But pegging out the washing comes with its own cost. More than 400 people a year are admitted to hospital with clothes-peg related injuries
full article
China heats up solar market with new feed-in tariff
China is already the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, but now it is making a move to become a major solar energy consumer as well, with a nationwide feed-in tariff to pay people or businesses a subsidy for electricity they produce with solar panels. This follows on the heels of the country’s wind energy feed-in tariff in 2009, which led to explosive growth in their wind industry.
China had a mishmash of solar incentives before, but the new policy will give a clearer signal to the market and “encourage more companies to participate in the industry,” said an analyst from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
China’s latest five-year plan, released in March, set the goal of using 20 percent renewable energy by 2020, and a solar feed-in tariff has been expected for months—so in anticipation many solar installations have already gotten rolling, and a flurry of projects may soon qualify.
Fast and Steady Wins the Race?
China, Germany and the U.K. have the most stable and consistent clean energy policies, which helps boost investment, according to a new report by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors.
However, on the same day as China’s announcement, the U.K. put into place a cut in its solar power subsidy for installations over 50 kilowatts, “effectively ending solar farm development” in the country, Business Green argued.
There was a stampede of projects trying to get completed before the deadline, but some are planning more large installations nonetheless. Also, it turns out a loophole in the solar feed-in tariff would have allowed large projects to still get high subsidies—but the government is now moving to close that.
The U.K. had planned to raise subsidies for other clean energy—but it is delaying the raise in the feed-in tariff for anaerobic digesters.
Besides the U.K., a number of other European countries—including Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic—hacked away at their solar subsidies before, and now the Australian state of Western Australia has also eliminated theirs.
The Canadian state of Ontario, on the other hand, is trying to protect clean energy projects by changing regulations to make it harder to cut clean energy subsidies.
Meanwhile, solar installations have been rising fast worldwide as the price of solar panels has fallen about 20 percent in the past year. But manufacturer’s margins are also falling, so it is not clear how much longer these price trends can continue.
full article
China had a mishmash of solar incentives before, but the new policy will give a clearer signal to the market and “encourage more companies to participate in the industry,” said an analyst from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
China’s latest five-year plan, released in March, set the goal of using 20 percent renewable energy by 2020, and a solar feed-in tariff has been expected for months—so in anticipation many solar installations have already gotten rolling, and a flurry of projects may soon qualify.
Fast and Steady Wins the Race?
China, Germany and the U.K. have the most stable and consistent clean energy policies, which helps boost investment, according to a new report by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors.
However, on the same day as China’s announcement, the U.K. put into place a cut in its solar power subsidy for installations over 50 kilowatts, “effectively ending solar farm development” in the country, Business Green argued.
There was a stampede of projects trying to get completed before the deadline, but some are planning more large installations nonetheless. Also, it turns out a loophole in the solar feed-in tariff would have allowed large projects to still get high subsidies—but the government is now moving to close that.
The U.K. had planned to raise subsidies for other clean energy—but it is delaying the raise in the feed-in tariff for anaerobic digesters.
Besides the U.K., a number of other European countries—including Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic—hacked away at their solar subsidies before, and now the Australian state of Western Australia has also eliminated theirs.
The Canadian state of Ontario, on the other hand, is trying to protect clean energy projects by changing regulations to make it harder to cut clean energy subsidies.
Meanwhile, solar installations have been rising fast worldwide as the price of solar panels has fallen about 20 percent in the past year. But manufacturer’s margins are also falling, so it is not clear how much longer these price trends can continue.
full article
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